A computing device typically runs a single operating system (OS) that can access hardware resources of the computing device. However, virtualization allows multiple virtual machines (VMs) to be run on the computing device. A VM may be a software instantiation of a computing environment or OS. In virtualization, multiple VMs are instantiated and each VM runs its own instance of an OS. The OS of each VM may run independent of other VMs. For example, a first OS can be unaware that it is running within a VM and that other OSs are running on other VMs for the same computing device. A hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor (VMM) can virtualize hardware resources of the computing device to provide access to the hardware resources for the VMs. A set of virtualization instructions can allow the hypervisor to operate in a root mode while guest OSs and application software can run in non-root modes.